Hi,
I'm new to Moodle and I'm a software engineer looking to be a contributor. Do I need to fill out a contributor license agreement (CLA)? I couldn't find anything in the developer documentation.
Thank you,
Laura
TL:DR No
(What cool abbreviation can I use to say something like, Got Time Willing to Read?
Moodle is made available under the Gnu Public License (GPL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
Which brings four freedoms
(What cool abbreviation can I use to say something like, Got Time Willing to Read?
Moodle is made available under the Gnu Public License (GPL) https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html
Which brings four freedoms
- Run the software for any purpose;
- Study how the software works through access to source code and to freely adapt it;
- Redistribute copies of the software to anyone;
- Change the software, and redistribute those changes to anyone
To get code into core you don't have to sign anything, you need to provide good useful code that conforms to the standards and some tact and patience.
Having said that plenty of people contribute without getting code into core so you don't necessarily need tact, but you will probably need patience because coding for Moodle requires learning some new* and interesting API's.
*(and by new I include some very old API's looking at you mforms)
Along with everything Marcus said, you can also contribute to many of the other, non-core, plugins and even create and maintain your own plugin. Refer to these pages for some further guidance:
https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Main_Page
https://moodledev.io/general/development/gettingstarted
https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Main_Page
https://moodledev.io/general/development/gettingstarted
In my opinion, there are tons of improvements that could be made to quiz questions. Here's why.
Questions in Moodle, and probably other LMSs, seem to have been developed backwards. That is to say according to the methods of programmers, to then be imposed on users.
I think hard copy teacher quizzes have not been given enough consideration in the development of Moodle question types. Take any paper questionnaire that contains simple questions and try to reproduce them in Moodle. You will immediately notice the many shortcomings of the Moodle questions. I can give you fifty off the top of my head.
There is a lot of work to be done to improve the quiz questions.
Questions in Moodle, and probably other LMSs, seem to have been developed backwards. That is to say according to the methods of programmers, to then be imposed on users.
I think hard copy teacher quizzes have not been given enough consideration in the development of Moodle question types. Take any paper questionnaire that contains simple questions and try to reproduce them in Moodle. You will immediately notice the many shortcomings of the Moodle questions. I can give you fifty off the top of my head.
There is a lot of work to be done to improve the quiz questions.
Hi Dominique,
Would you mind sharing just a few of these ideas? I’ve got a specification (almost) ready for a question type which works with autocomplete and a (theoretically) unlimited number of available right and wrong answers (think about countries for example or just cases where you don’t care about typos but can’t list the answers currently because they are too many).
Maybe there’s something more important we should work on first?
Thanks
Stefan
Would you mind sharing just a few of these ideas? I’ve got a specification (almost) ready for a question type which works with autocomplete and a (theoretically) unlimited number of available right and wrong answers (think about countries for example or just cases where you don’t care about typos but can’t list the answers currently because they are too many).
Maybe there’s something more important we should work on first?
Thanks
Stefan
Hello Stefan,
No, Your plugins are excellent. Keep up the great work.
I'm more concerned about small yet annoying lack of features in the various core and third-party question types.
For the True or false question:
Etc.
No, Your plugins are excellent. Keep up the great work.
I'm more concerned about small yet annoying lack of features in the various core and third-party question types.
For the True or false question:
- More than one statement per question.
- etc.
- Limit the number of choices.
- Mark the selected choices.
- Fixed first and last choices in random mode.
- etc.
- Restriction to numeric value inputs for the NUMERICAL subquestion.
- Fixed width of input boxes.
- Ability to answer multiple SHORTANSWER subquestions in any order.
- Images, equations, long items in the MULTICHOICE subquestion.
- etc.
Etc.
"For the Cloze core question"
I have been thinking very hard about (the) Cloze question for over 10 years. It's complexity inspired me to develop my Gapfill question type. There is plenty of room for alternative/complimentary question types.
I have been thinking very hard about (the) Cloze question for over 10 years. It's complexity inspired me to develop my Gapfill question type. There is plenty of room for alternative/complimentary question types.
Hello Marcus,
Sometimes it would be useful to be able to display a different feedback for each of the distractors.
Sometimes it would be useful to be able to display a different feedback for each of the distractors.
I think that is possible in core Cloze, but not in Gapfill.... if you can work out how to create the question at all in Cloze....
Hello Marcus,
Finally, I wrote a little script to get different feedback for each distractor. I give an example at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=438918.
Finally, I wrote a little script to get different feedback for each distractor. I give an example at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=438918.
Morning Dominique,
you made my day, glad you like our plugins!
I'll post in the appropriate forum once I have news about the autocomplete question type! As a sneak peak, here's our current mock-up: https://preview.uxpin.com/2fea994b8848a1d1ed538de07487d5e7e5c88cab#/pages/139932438/simulate/no-panels?mode=i
All the best
Stefan
you made my day, glad you like our plugins!
I'll post in the appropriate forum once I have news about the autocomplete question type! As a sneak peak, here's our current mock-up: https://preview.uxpin.com/2fea994b8848a1d1ed538de07487d5e7e5c88cab#/pages/139932438/simulate/no-panels?mode=i
All the best
Stefan
This thread seems to have moved away from the question that Laura originally asked about.
Also, eariler in this thread, Dominque, you say "Questions in Moodle, ... seem to have been developed ... according to the methods of programmers, to then be imposed on users." but then you choose to make some interesting suggestions about question types here in the General developer forum. Can I suggest we move this discussion to the Quiz forum, where is is much more likely that teachers can participate.
I am actually very sad that your perception is like that. I think that one of the strenghts of Moodle, right from the start, is that teacher were involved in working out what functionaliy was needed. Certainly, my impression of most of the work I have done on the quiz has adding new features requested by teachers. (My perception could be wrong. Also, there is some other work, which is re-engneering whole bunch of existing features, so they work basically the same, but in a way where the code is more robust and easier to add more to in future.)
Anyway, even before your posts, I had been reaching the conclusing that, after all the other things that have been worked on in Moodle quiz world (e.g. most recently the question bank changes), it is becoming top priority to return to the question types themeselves, and do some improvements there. Your wish list and mine overlap, but let us talk about those details in the Quiz forum.
Also, eariler in this thread, Dominque, you say "Questions in Moodle, ... seem to have been developed ... according to the methods of programmers, to then be imposed on users." but then you choose to make some interesting suggestions about question types here in the General developer forum. Can I suggest we move this discussion to the Quiz forum, where is is much more likely that teachers can participate.
I am actually very sad that your perception is like that. I think that one of the strenghts of Moodle, right from the start, is that teacher were involved in working out what functionaliy was needed. Certainly, my impression of most of the work I have done on the quiz has adding new features requested by teachers. (My perception could be wrong. Also, there is some other work, which is re-engneering whole bunch of existing features, so they work basically the same, but in a way where the code is more robust and easier to add more to in future.)
Anyway, even before your posts, I had been reaching the conclusing that, after all the other things that have been worked on in Moodle quiz world (e.g. most recently the question bank changes), it is becoming top priority to return to the question types themeselves, and do some improvements there. Your wish list and mine overlap, but let us talk about those details in the Quiz forum.
Hello Tim,
I am actually very sad that your perception is like that.
I'm not glad my comments saddened you, but I'm glad they didn't infuriate you (I hope they didn't).And then I don't think I'm important enough to sadden you. So everything is fine. Seriously, please excuse me if I said anything that annoyed, offended or hurt you in any way.
I tend to not always express myself well, to exaggerate or simply to realize afterwards that what I said was not quite appropriate. Saying "according to the methods of programmers, then imposed on users" wasn't very smart of me.
Maybe, and I don't even know if I'm really right, I meant that computing has certain limitations, which everyone has to deal with, and that electronic questions may not correspond exactly to what a teacher would have liked or can do with questions on paper. For example, I don't know if this is the best example, it's doable but (still) difficult or laborious to have questions marqued automatically that were submitted by handwriting or drawing on a computer. I know, it's not a good example, but I just wanted to stress the fact that there is a difference, sometimes important, between what teachers can do on paper and what can be done electronically.
I am actually very sad that your perception is like that.
I'm not glad my comments saddened you, but I'm glad they didn't infuriate you (I hope they didn't).
I tend to not always express myself well, to exaggerate or simply to realize afterwards that what I said was not quite appropriate. Saying "according to the methods of programmers, then imposed on users" wasn't very smart of me.
Maybe, and I don't even know if I'm really right, I meant that computing has certain limitations, which everyone has to deal with, and that electronic questions may not correspond exactly to what a teacher would have liked or can do with questions on paper. For example, I don't know if this is the best example, it's doable but (still) difficult or laborious to have questions marqued automatically that were submitted by handwriting or drawing on a computer. I know, it's not a good example, but I just wanted to stress the fact that there is a difference, sometimes important, between what teachers can do on paper and what can be done electronically.
Here is another example, perhaps a little more concrete. The true or false core question has only one statement, while on paper there are often several statements grouped together. So much so that the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich published the Multi True/False in One Stem plugin in 2017. That's fine, but I wonder why the core question wasn't multi statements in the first place.
Anyway, honestly my comments are meant much more as suggestions than criticism. The Moodle community is really very nice in general and towards me. I suspect that there is quite a big machine running Moodle, including hundreds of contributors much more knowledgeable than me, and all I hope is to be able to contribute even a little to this very beautiful project that is Moodle.
See you in the quiz forum.
Best regards,
Dominique
Anyway, honestly my comments are meant much more as suggestions than criticism. The Moodle community is really very nice in general and towards me. I suspect that there is quite a big machine running Moodle, including hundreds of contributors much more knowledgeable than me, and all I hope is to be able to contribute even a little to this very beautiful project that is Moodle.
See you in the quiz forum.
Best regards,
Dominique
Thanks Dominique.
Just to say, I have now started a thread over in the quiz forum to ask people for their suggestions for improving the core question types. Please feel free to all your ideas there.
Then, it is a matter of finding time to implement them, but the good thing about Moodle being open source is that (in theory) there is not a fixed limited number of people who can contribute.